The Cat Who Wasn't There

"With my aversion to this cat, however, its partiality for myself seemed to increase."

"The Black Cat"

Cats? Or dogs?

Marriage is one of the prime reasons why Japanese women quit their job, and that's also the reason why Kaori is offered her friend's job, as she's leaving as the sole employee of the Tanuma Law Office. Tanuma Seikichi is an elderly veteran lawyer who is more-or-less retired: most of his clients have been referred to other lawyers already, and the remaining few on the list are only the people who have employed his services since his earliest days. Kaori's daily activity at the office therefore has nothing to do with regular office work. The main reason Kaori's employed is to take care of a cat. Hyouta is the cat of Tanuma's wife, who died a few years ago. While Tanuma doesn't want to take care of the cat himself, he does want to keep his wife's cat, so the cat has been living in the office since. Kaori and her predecessor's job is thus to look after the cat at the office, including in the weekends. But when Kaori first met Hyouta, she could feel that Hyouta couldn't be the real name of such a beautiful Scottish Fold. When Kaori inadvertently guessed the name "Scottie" correctly, the cat decided to reveal her secret to Kaori: Scottie can speak! Since then, the two have been best friends, chatting about their common hobby: mystery fiction. Scottie is a great lover of detective fiction, and comes up with ideas like "a locked room by cats, about cats, for cats." When Kaori manages to solve this locked room mystery, Scottie wants to get even with an even more fanciful story: a murder mystery based on the people they know. The story about the horrible of her master Tanuma in the office features Tanuma's colorful clients as the main suspects. But while Kaori and Scottie enjoy this fiction-based-on-fact, a real crime is committed in the Tanuma Law Office in Miki Akiko's Neko ni wa Suiri ga yoku Niau ("Deductions Suit Cats Well", 2016).

What a pleasant surprise! I basically bought this novel on a whim. I was checking the discounted books, when this book caught my attention: the cover was cute, and the description of a talking cat acting as a detective sounded interesting. I hadn't expected that this novel would prove to be quite a tricky mystery novel, one that is definitely more than just a book with a gimmick. The plot device of Scottie is used quite well to create unique plots, and while the whole stoy is set within the confines of the law office, Miki manages to create quite a complex plot with interesting characters and deceivingly deep chains of deductions.

The novel is divided in two distinct halves, and the first half is definitely the most entertaining one. In this part, we follow Scottie and Kaori's funny banter while we are also introduced to the various clients of Tanuma who visit him in his office, who all have their own problems and quirks. A cheating wife who wants to divorce from Tanuma's client, the plotting family of an elderly man who is planning to leave the family fortune not to his next of kin, a family with a bad'un as son: Scottie and Kaori see all kinds of people walk in and out the office. After Kaori manages to solve Scottie's creation "a locked room by cats, about cats, for cats", Scottie decides to think of a new mystery story about the law office. In Scottie's latest creation, Tanuma is killed in the office on Saturday, and the suspects are the suspicious people Kaori and Scottie saw this week at the office: was it the bad'un who snuck into the office to steal something from the office safe and accidently killed Tanuma? Was it the cheating wife who was looking for the evidence of her infidelity? It's quite amazing how deeply plotted this section is. At first, Kaori comes up with pretty simple, but plausible solutions to the Tanuma Murder, but it's at this point Scottie (and author Miki) reveal how much of the fun banter between Scottie and Kaori was actually careful hinting. Minor comments and funny dialogues turn out to be cleverly hidden clues, clues that mercilessly deny all the possibilities Kaori can think off to explain the murder. The plot here reminds of mystery stories with false solutions like The Poisoned Chocolate Case and Kyoumu he no Kumotsu, which is quite good company. Neko ni wa Suiri ga yoku Niau is not a meta-mystery like those novels, but the way the same basic setting gives way too many interpretations is definitely similar.

The second half of the novel brings a totally different game. At the end of Scottie and Kaori's deduction battle, Kaori is attacked in the the office by a real assaillant. While she recovers, Tanuma decides to hire a criminal lawyer who started her career at his office in order to solve the attack on his employee. The tone of the tale changes drastically, as we don't follow Kaori and Scottie anymore (we don't even hear Scottie talk anymore), while we're now investigating a real crime instead of the fictional crimes of Scottie and Kaori's intellectual game. Yet Miki shows off that this is indeed a well-planned novel, and even the deduction battles between Scottie and Kaori turn out to be important clues to solving the real crime. With fantasy and reality crossing each other, Neko ni wa Suiri ga yoku Niau might sound like a tricky novel, but it's really readable and easy to follow, even if as a mystery novel, it's a great example of how even a very simple setting can turn into a great mystery story with good plotting and clewing.

Neko ni wa Suiri ga yoku Niau is a really pleasant novel to read. Don't be deceived by the minor fantasy angle of a talking cat: Scottie's love for mystery fiction is real, and the many, many false solutions, and their refuttals are based on cleverly hidden hints in the funny banter between Scottie and Kaori and will entertain anyone with a love for mystery fiction. Recommendation to the cat lovers among us!

Original Japanese title(s): 深木章子『猫には推理がよく似合う』